The election circus is here

“The same as it ever was, the same as it ever was.”—Talking Heads

If you think the election pseudodrama taking place in Canada now is boring, stupid, useless and expensive from our hinterland of southern B.C., you won’t feel gratified by learning that from here in Switzerland (I’m here as part of the Canadian Speed Skiing Team) the whole process is a matter of profound uninterest. Here, they’ve recently hosted the World Extreme Ski finals, Freeride Competitions and now the fastest non-motorised speed freaks from 16 countries hucking themselves off a 51 degree slope in another attempt to ramp up their personal bests. A federal election in Canada is taking first place in the Snoozemeisterspiel. Here in Europe, there are lots of long unwieldy words which make one think the chaotic English language occasionally makes sense.

The English and French language debates only confirmed that all party leaders are dorkmeisters. They have the unfortunate and expensive responsibility over a multibillion dollar federal budget which, for the abjectly poor excuse of providing a democratic voice to the public, will reward the loser class and punish those who actually produce taxes for a living. However, the public can’t take their eyes off the playoffs long enough to vote against the same old semi-competent Mr. Harper who will return to power again.

Buying voters with their own money has been, and forevermore will be, a favoured gambit by power crazed members of Parliament eager to impart their own particularly bizarre version of the way the world should work, as is evidenced by the Liberals and the NDP with their green schemes, income equality, sustainability nonsense.

All the Conservatives need to do, which they are barely capable of, is not trip over their own feet and admit that parliamentary culpability is akin to nuclear physics to most. Only the media is concerned about some non-disclosure thing or other some months back. Joe the Public doesn’t and will not care.

The good news for those of us in the The Great White North is that, compared to most of the world, we have the comparative luxury of a reasonably benign rulership by Diktat class, a not quite kleptomaniacal civil service and a superb resource base of industrious folks like you and me who go about our jobs doing, well, whatever it is we’re supposed to be doing. It seems odd that sometimes good things happen even while Ottawa people deem we need an idiotic election to show that they can effortlessly waste $300 million.

Given whatever feelings there are to whichever mutt you want to waste your $10 per person national expenditure upon, please remember that once they’re in office, they should offer respect if they represent you to Ottawa and not simply take marching orders from Ottawa to you.

The voter’s manifesto includes balancing the budget, giving up this equalization payment shell game from haves to have-not regions, and returning to by, for and of the people government.